Girlfriend of NIU shooter speaks out

The article says he quit his anti-depressants three weeks ago. I've heard that quitting cold-turkey can be a horrible idea. Too bad this guy wasn't seeing a therapist. I don't think the meds cut it.

Of course. The meds didn't cut it because it treated the symptoms - NOT THE PROBLEM.

The problem persisted and what do you know, he lashed out? Why is any body surprised? Hello!?

She is a door knob! She wouldn't know "normal" if it fell on her head. Ya, it's just normal for young people to be taking anti-depressants - rrrriiiiiigggggghhhhhhtttttt!

Does that make me Abey-normal if I'm not taking them?

He saw a professional and the idiot doctor prescribed him drugs. We should hold the pharmaceutical companies responsible for every person that is on anti-depressants and kills someone - sue the pharmaceuticals that make, market and profit from the prescribing of drugs that lead people to kill!!!!!

I think he'd be better off, and still alive if he had just smoked pot or something.

Very interesting - richjm, although the research reported didn't go into much depth in any area.

Most of America is conditioned to conform. Thanks to the media influence, the new normal is school shooting. Our corporate controlled culture has deftly succeeded in suppressing rugged individualism. Now, that has backfired and we are left cleaning up the mess of the new mainstream. The old cool was to purchase the latest techno-gadget. The new cool is morphing into kill as many classmates as you can. Since many kids today can no longer critically think, they fall into whatever patterns are laid out.

Hold on, hold on Voyager -- just because he was on anti-depressants doesn't make his doctor an idiot. Millions of people are really helped by these drugs. In many cases, it's definitely a physiological problem that a person is depressed -- it has to do with brain chemistry and anti-depressants ARE helpful, often life saving. But like any medication, if you quit cold turkey you are going to be in trouble.

In fact the article that Richjm linked us to states the finding that "Only one-third of the attackers had ever been seen by a mental health professional, and only one-fifth had been diagnosed with a mental disorder. Substance abuse problems were also not prevalent. “However, most attackers showed some history of suicidal attempts or thoughts, or a history of feeling extreme depression or desperation.” Most attackers had difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures."

What makes one kid lash out murderously when he is depressed and has difficulty coping, and not the other 99% of kids who ALSO get depressed and have difficulty coping at some point in high school or college? That's really the question.

Yes, I agree that the over-prescription of SSRIs and other anti-depressants could be a band-aid solution for deeper problems in our society. But, it is also true that going off your meds cold turkey is a very bad idea, because you've changed your brain chemistry to become dependent on elevated levels of serotonin and you can't just quit your drugs without feeling terrible, even suicidal or homicidal. But clearly that's not the unifying factor for all these school shootings. Know what is? -- GUNS.

It seems to me that easy access to guns by teens is an easily-controllable part of the problem. Why do teens need to be able to buy guns? Without raising the complete 2nd Amendment debate, and attracting the NRA to this discussion, can anybody really defend the idea of TEENS buying guns? Should that be legal?

No, teens should not be able to buy guns, but the problem is not with them actually buying the guns, the problem lies with their easy access to guns. Some of the blame has to be put on the parents of teens who do not adequately protect their cache of weapons. It's pretty simple, you get a gun cabinet, and you lock the gun cabinet so your kids can not get into it. Unfortunately many parents expose their children to guns at an early age for sport purposes but do not express the fact that they should only be touched, loaded, and fired for that purpose. Parents are teaching the kids how to use guns, but not what to use them for. However, it is still to easy for people to buy guns, especially at gun shows and over the internet.